An Outsourced Spy Mission

George Smiley Minor: The Looking Glass War by Edward A. Grainger.

A Further Nod

What a nice way to end the year! Ron Scheer takes a look at my Further Adventures.

Tiny Yuletide Guardians

More of my mother’s past creativity: Here is one of many Queen’s Guards that Mom made out of clothes pins and small pom-poms. These sentries faithfully protect my sister Meta's Christmas tree each and every year. Sometimes they come under attack when Boomer the Dog’s happy tail swipes at them. Otherwise, they have a most pleasant assignment.

Remembering John Dall

Link: Let’s Not Forget Film Noir's John Dall

Rain on the leaves...

At 2 a.m. the little goose couldn't sleep and wanted to watch a show on the Kindle Fire. Once she was happily contented with M. Mouse—and with any luck our lesson is finally learned that there should be no chocolate consumed before bed—and my Charmer was back to sleep, I began working on an Errol Flynn article devoted to his Hollywood Westerns. I watched part of Sante Fe Trail (1940) and this leads to watching the documentary Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn.

And that’s a long way around to saying it reminded me of “Sean Flynn” by The Clash from 1982’s Combat Rock. Errol’s son Sean, a freelance photojournalist for Time and United Press International, disappeared on April 6, 1970. His body was never found and it is believed he was held captive for over a year before being murdered by the Khmer Rouge.

Hello, Goodbye

Ava waving to the good folks in Tysons Corner, Virginia. At that moment, I was playing Billy Joel's Greatest Hits and the lyrics "Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes" seemed to be timed perfect.

A Dynamite Girl’s Film Noir

Alexis Smith (June 8, 1921 – June 9, 1993) was a versatile, Canadian-born actress who was equally at home playing in Hollywood Westerns, comedies, and noirs or just about any genre Tinseltown tossed her way. She played opposite many of the biggest Silver Screen draws including Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Errol Flynn, and Cary Grant. The publicity machine of the era dubbed her the Dynamite Girl—casting her most often in the role of “The Other Woman”—and after two decades, she met her ultimate critical acclaim for 1959’s The Young Philadelphians opposite Paul Newman. Later, she turned to Broadway where she won a Tony Award in 1972 and in the very early 1990s was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on an episode of Cheers. For nearly fifty years she was married to Peter Gunn’s Craig Stevens.

The rest of my article can be found at Macmillan's Criminal Element. 

The Lawyer: Stay of Execution by Wayne D. Dundee

Coming soon...

In the Old West, J.D. Miller had been an attorney at law. A respected and successful one. Until the horrific, soul-scarring day when he returned home to find his entire family gruesomely slaughtered—the charred remains scarcely recognizable in the smoldering ruins of what had once been their house. Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, The Lawyer—a killing machine—was born, and he’s leaving a blood-splattered revenge trail as he searches out those who murdered his family.

THE LAWYER: STAY OF EXECUTION is the first novella in a thrilling new hard-boiled Western series by bestselling Amazon author Wayne D. Dundee (Manhunter’s Mountain, The Empty Badge) and BEAT to a PULP books. Based on characters created by Edward A. Grainger, author of the Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles adventures.

Night and the City

Ava's picture. Any Guesses where?

Any Sam Elliott Fans?

Any Sam Elliott fans? I'm at Macmillan's Criminal Element with The Man Who Kept the Western Alive.

Criminal Words

In a previous post, I've mentioned a Cash Laramie noir Western, "Merciless," being a part of Erik Arneson's Word Crimes Podcast. Now that same adventure is in an audiobook called Criminal Words and joins other stellar offerings by the distinguished likes of Joe Clifford, Jen Conley, Chris Holm, Chris Irvin, Tom Pitts, Steve Weddle, and Erik Arneson. Stories are all read by former public radio reporter Scott Detrow.

Here's a link to Erik's website and a little more information on the new release.

All That Matters

My Charmers at Bowman's Beach, Sanibel Island, Florida.

Steel

Elijah (“Lije”) Baley is a New York City homicide detective a few millennia into the future. His world is an overpopulated Earth with eight billion people living in massive, layered complexes—caves of steel—enclosed by mammoth domes. Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York have grown to the point where they are almost touching. Humans no longer know what it is to see natural light (except the elite who live at the top) or experience the feeling of the wind on their back. Even the thought of walking outside their enclosed womb of a city is terrifying and many people like Elijah have agoraphobia.

There are fifty known planets, called Spacer worlds, where colonists have established new societies and have become wealthy due to their low population and abundant supplies, leaving Earth as the runt of the galaxy. The aptly named Spacers are deep intergalactic colonists who have returned to Earth, but their integration back on the home planet has its obstacles, the least of which is their fear of the diseased-riddled Earth since their own worlds are devoid of such maladies.

 *Read the rest of my article, 60 YEARS LATER, ASIMOV’S STEEL STRONG, at The Fall Creek Review.

Listen for Cash

So a few months back, Erik Arneson approached me and asked if I had a story he could use for his topmost Word Crimes Podcast. I was just completing Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles and thought “Merciless” would be a perfect fit, and thanks to Erik and the vocal talents of Scott Detrow it turns out to be something special indeed. This is a first for me, hearing my characters come alive, so to speak, in another medium.

“Merciless” features former lawman Cash Laramie—The Outlaw Marshal—at seventy-nine-years-old. His glory days far behind him, he’s traded his horse in for a car and sits most evenings in a Cheyenne bar conversing with the bartender. Another patron, a young loudmouth named Roberts, sets in motion a series of events that leads to a poignant, tragic ending.

I feel this one turned out pretty darn good, with special thanks going to my buddy Chuck Tyrell who had considerable input (and to whom I dedicate my latest collection). “Merciless” originally appeared in Pulp Modern Issue #4, edited by Alec Cizak.

And, of course, big thanks to Erik and Scott. What a nice, early Christmas present. Guaranteed I'll listen another two dozen times at least.

Not So Holy

“Pardon me. In the excitement of the moment, and all that sort of thing, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m afraid I’ve had you at a disadvantage. My name is Templar—Simon Templar”—he caught the flash of stark hypnotic fear that blanched the big man’s lips, and grinned even more gently. “You may have heard of me. I am the Saint.”

My introduction to the world of The Saint comes, like I suspect it does for many, from Roger Moore’s entertaining and breezy 1960’s British television show that had the impeccably dressed adventurer-for-hire traversing the globe, righting wrongs, and meeting attractive women.

The rest of my article can be found at Macmillan's Criminal Element.

Family

A painting by Ava of her family. We are in silhouette inside our happy home with Scooter the cat outside. Yeah, this is what I’m grateful for on any given day.

Family and Scooter by Ava.

The Last Kind Words Saloon

Larry McMurtry mentions in his brief introduction to The Last Kind Words Saloon, “I had the great director John Ford in mind when I wrote this book; he famously said that when you had to choose between history and legend, print the legend. And so I’ve done.” But the reader will quickly realize that McMurtry’s version of the legend is unlike any other that has been printed over the last 130 plus years.

In the first two pages of The Last Kind Words Saloon, Wyatt Earp, customarily regarded with nerves of steel, turns pale when Doc Holliday says being a dentist is easy: “All you need is a pair of pliers and maybe a chisel for difficult cases.” McMurtry adds that Wyatt “Had always been squeamish.”

The rest of my article can be found at Macmillan's Criminal Element.

Mom and Mary, and Timotheus Too

Mom and Mary Margaret.

Before Alzheimer’s deprived Mom of her creative skills, she used to make all kinds of crafts, including ragdolls. With yarn for hair, knitted sweaters, and hand-sewn clothes, each doll was meticulously fashioned by Mom, and if something didn’t look good enough, she would pull it apart and begin again—like any artist takes time to make their work just so.

Nearly all the dolls have found happy homes with my sisters and nieces, except one. Mom probably had kept it because she’d never finished the face—arthritis had stolen her nimble dexterity, then Alzheimer’s gunned for everything else. This doll’s body and features may not be as prim as the others but no less distinctive. That didn’t mean the unfinished ragdoll was unwanted. When Mom went to live with my sister Sheila Marie, the doll went too. Soon after the move, the doll was given a proper name, Mary Margaret, eventually shortened to just Mary.

A year and half later, Mom went into the nursing home, and she mentioned to my sister that Mary should have a face because she was afraid Mary couldn’t see someone coming in the room to snatch her away. “How would she see who had taken her?” Sheila Marie freely admits she is no Norman Rockwell but she nicely drew this pleasant face on Mary, a face that Mom doesn’t leave out of her sight for any length of time.

Mary has been a great sense of comfort, and these days, she is no longer a stuffed ragdoll but a real little girl … a living breathing companion that Mom looks after and cares for each day.

On Tuesday, we brought Mom back to my sister’s home where we watched Casablanca, but, before Bogart’s flashback to Bergman in Paris, Mom began to worry that Mary and her new friend Timotheus (because, as Mom had said, the little girl needs a friend) were alone.

Timotheus and Mary.

I feigned calling the nurses and then assured her that Mary and Timotheus were just fine. Mom still felt that she had to get back to her babies, as she called them, so Sheila Marie, my charmers, and I drove Mom back where she was instantly put at ease by the sight of her good friends.

Often patients in this stage of dementia are consoled by dolls and little children (my daughter Ava is like a celebrity walking through the facility). Everywhere you look, there are plastic and plush countenances peeking out from behind a pillow, staring down from a top shelf, and smiling across the community areas to greet you when you come in. At first I didn’t think anything of it.

After we said goodbye to Mom and she walked us to the secured door, it upset Mom that we were all leaving at once. So Sheila Marie stayed behind for a few minutes while my family and I departed, even though it was troubling to go with Mom in that mindset.

Outside, we waved to Mom standing at the window with Sheila Marie by her side. Mom yelled through the closed window, “Arrivederci.” I yelled it back (and Ava too!).

I looked past Mom to Mary sitting upright against the wall. My own memories surfaced of a stuffed animal named Monkey I’d had as a little boy. Monkey calmed me when the thunder cracked and when I couldn’t sleep because monsters were lurking in the shadows. I remembered what it was like to have a child’s outlook and the bond of a close friend. And in that reflective moment, I found myself comforted because we weren’t leaving Mom alone after all. Not really … Mary and Timotheus were there.

A few of mom's creations.

The Ocean at the End of the Memory

“The years have taken its course,” my mom says. She pauses after that statement, and though it’s poignant it’s hard to determine where she is in the moment. In this final stage of Alzheimer’s I want to believe she is aware of who I am and cognizant of our conversation. But I get the sense anyone sitting with her in this nursing home in northeast Texas could be me. The frame that borders her world is crumbling fast, expunging names, faces, and memories, limiting us to what we can talk about. So I search for what’s left, the familiar that remains. An old story from her past told one more time, not so much for her but for me. I want to be lulled back to when she remembers, and that takes us to her birthplace of Georgetown in then British Guyana.

Her language is jumbled as I jot down her words:

“British had lots of water pushing in … I would stay there awhile … water plunges until it gets to the bottom.”

She becomes frustrated with her unintelligible thoughts, repeating, “The years taken its course.” I notice the word ‘have’ is left out of the sentence and it’s only a few minutes into the conversation. Yet, she reaches back through the years struggling to remember her story she has told many, many times: a teenage girl on the shore looking out at the ocean.

“I would stay there awhile. Watching as the water swirls out and returns crashing on the shore. I would run to the top of this wall made out of stone and run across it … looking down at all the people … people in the water. People with lines in the water.”

“What were the people like?”

“What?”

“The people in Guyana? What were they like?”

“Oh,” she smiles, “They were good people.”

As she reminisces, my mom observes my daughter who is laying at the other end of the couch watching a show on the Kindle Fire. “Sometimes you feel sad.”

She pokes a finger toward my daughter who giggles on cue.

“How old is she?” she asks.

“Three and a half.”

“She is very wise. Very smart.”

“Yes she is,” I reply and after a few hours it’s time to go. It’s been a good visit. We gather up our belongings and Mom walks us to the exit. I enter the combination into the keypad that lets us out. She waves and I say goodbye.

“Don’t say goodbye. I don’t like goodbye. Say ‘Arrivederci!’”

“Arrivederci!” I say.

Border Crossing

Ava took this picture last night at the Texas-Louisiana border.

Engines of War

“I’ve faced this in the past, and I didn’t act in time. If I’d only had the guts to do what was necessary back then, things might be very different now. But I’m a different man now. I don’t live by the same ideals. I have a job to do, and this time, I have no such qualms.” —The War Doctor

I had a lot of fun reading Engines of War by George Mann. My thoughts at Macmillan's Tor.com.

Smiley as Puppeteer

I'm reviewing the eight George Smiley novels for Criminal Element and I'm up to The Spy Who Came in From the Cold that put John LeCarre on the map.

The Roots of Creativity

After a long day of work, I've come to enjoy painting with my three-year-old daughter. It's a relaxing pastime that we both enjoy and I marvel at her progress over the last year. Quite often she paints houses with her family in them with the sun in the sky. And she always signs her paintings, sometimes with a heart next to her signature.

Meanwhile I usually create a standard-looking tree and grass with the occasional bird flying past. She liked watching me paint my various trees and decided to make this very artistic-looking tree of her own. I love the fact she went in her own inspired direction.

And Now Dinosaurs in Kevin's Corner!

I had quite a lot of fun reading and publishing Garnett Elliott's latest adventures. Kevin Tipple enjoyed them as well saying, in part, "The tales of Carnosaur Weekend are all very good ones very much worth your time." Full review here.

Just When I Thought No One Was Listening...

I wrote an article on Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark and originally received one lone comment. Didn't think much about it but assumed it wasn't well received. Well the good folks at Criminal Element posted it on reddit where it snared 20,000 page views and, so far, garnered 155 comments. What else can I say but... Wow!

At Kevin's Corner...

I'm always appreciative when someone takes the time to read a book I've worked on and even more pleased when they take the time out of their busy week to review. In this case, Kevin Tipple was kind enough to write a few words on my Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles. Thanks, Kevin!

Adventures, Spies, Gangsters, and Thrillers

The public image of Richard Burton (1925-1984), for better or for worse, will forever be intertwined with Elizabeth Taylor (who he married twice) and for a lifetime struggle with alcohol. But at his Hollywood start, Burton established himself as a top Shakespearean actor on par with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. Poor film choices—a number of them with Taylor—helped dilute that prestige during his lifetime. Looking back now, thirty years after his passing, there are more triumphs: Hamlet, Becket, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1984, etc. than failures like the bottom of the barrel, The Klansman (1974).

Here are four films (two hits, two lesser-known efforts) that show the versatile range of a man who once with self-deprecating humor mused, “The Welsh are all actors. It’s only the bad ones who become professional.”

Please read the rest of my article over at Criminal Element.

Free eBook: The Year I Died Seven Times Book #7

The Year I Died Seven Times by Eric Beetner has reached the final installment of this exciting serial novel and to celebrate the release BEAT to a PULP is offering #7 free for five days along with most of the other titles. A perfect time to leap on this hardboiled adventure. And see what Clare Toohey has to say about this series over at Criminal Element.

Happy Halloween!

My talented niece and her equally talented boyfriend carved these pumpkins. 

My littlest charmer decided to take a break from scaring her family and watch some Paw Patrol.

Murder, He Wrote

The second George Smiley novel is an offbeat curio in the series and a damn good one at that. A unique entry because it isn’t a spy novel at all but rather an old-fashioned detective mystery along the lines of Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers. Later, more celebrated Smiley adventures certainly have mystery elements sprinkled in (as Smiley investigates a mole within the Circus Spy agency) but A Murder of Quality operates outside the espionage community altogether.

Plot: Miss Brimley is an old friend of George Smiley (from his WWII exploits) and when she receives a letter from a woman named Stella Rode, who claims her husband is trying to kill her, Brimley seeks Smiley’s counsel. Unfortunately, though, it’s too late.

Read the rest of my article at Criminal Element. 

The Church at Auvers by Vincent Van Gogh

My charmers and I have been enjoying painting during breaks in the day and evenings. Picasso's we are not but the youngest of us has great, great potential and I marvel at her ability to imagine something and recreate it faithfully on canvas ... well, paper. For me, its a relaxing break from reading, writing, and editing.

I went to the local library and grabbed several art books for kids on Monet and Van Gogh. Ava recognized The Starry Night from one of her favorite shows, The Little Einsteins, and I stopped on The Church at Auvers depicted here. Funny, when I looked at this classic again I immediately looked for the creature from a 2010 Doctor Who episode called "Vincent and the Doctor" where the time traveler notices a grotesque creature in one of the windows and so he goes back in time to help the artist triumph over the beast and only then does the painting resort to its normal appearance. Silliness for sure. Anyway, I'm enjoying Van Gogh's art these days and felt like posting The Church at Auvers.

In a letter dated June 5, 1890, Van Gogh writes to his sister:

... I have a larger picture of the village church - an effect in which the building appears to be violet-hued against a sky of simple deep blue colour, pure cobalt; the stained-glass windows appear as ultramarine blotches, the roof is violet and partly orange. In the foreground some green plants in bloom, and sand with the pink flow of sunshine in it. And once again it is nearly the same thing as the studies I did in Nuenen of the old tower and the cemetery, only it is probably that now the colour is more expressive, more sumptuous. [from Van Gogh's Letters].

The Angel Deeb

It's always a pleasure to have Patti at BEAT to a PULP and this time with "The Angel Deeb."

Swashbuckling Swagger!

In another time they may have sailed with Blackbeard or Captain Kidd but these anachronistic swashbucklers live in a future of droids, Daleks, and mutants. They are heroes who laugh in the face of death, live to do battle against impossible chances, and know when to toss that one-line quip that sends proceedings up with a wink. Quite often they are hesitant protagonists who seem more prone to shady dealings than noble pursuits, but when the chips are down they rise to the occasion and balance the odds.

Without further ado, I'm at Tor.com with seven science-fiction heroes with swashbuckling swagger!

Twain’s Other Steamboat Adventure

It was always nuts for Tom Sawyer—a mystery was. If you'd lay out a mystery and a pie before me and him, you wouldn't have to say take your choice; it was a thing that would regulate itself. Because in my nature I have always run to pie, whilst in his nature he has always run to mystery. People are made different. And it is the best way. —Huckleberry Finn

I'm at Criminal Element with Tom Sawyer, Detective: Twain’s Other Steamboat Adventure. Speaking of Twain, he had so many quotable quotes, right? Here's one of my favorites: "When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." Or this one: "But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"

Reexamining A Clockwork Orange

BEAT to a PULP's Chad Eagleton has an in-depth essay on Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange over at The Fall Creek Review. A thought-provoking piece on the relevance of this book and, honestly, if its actually any good.

I've always liked the Stanley Kubrick movie but can remember having a difficult time, myself, finishing the novel. Chad tackles this—comparing book vs. film—plus highlights Rat Pack by Shane Stevens which is how he initially came to read the Burgess classic.

Btw some recent greatness at The Fall Creek Review includes "The Lizard's Ardent Uniform" by Chris Holm and Ron Scheer's  "My Dinner with Allen Ginsberg." TFCR sporadically updates but when they do you don't want to miss any posts. A good site to bookmark.

Free ebook! Carnosaur Weekend by Garnett Elliott

It’s a dirty job …

Policing the timelines has always been dangerous, but the brave agents of Continuity Inc. have arguably the most important job in human history. Protecting human history.

Newly promoted agent Kyler Knightly teams up with his uncle, Damon Cole, to stop unscrupulous developers from exploiting the Late Cretaceous. A luxury subdivision smack-dab in the middle of dinosaur country threatens not only the present, but super-rich homeowners looking for the ultimate getaway.

CARNOSAUR WEEKEND includes the original Kyler Knightly story, “The Zygma Gambit,” inspired by the dream journals of Kyle J. Knapp.

*This book will be a free Kindle download for several days and the print version will be released next week. 

Crimespree Magazine reviews...

The Big Ugly by Jake Hinkson. Dan Malmon says in part: "He gives us a protagonist that has every right to be boiling with vengeance, but is cool and even tempered. He gives us supporting characters that should fall neatly into typecast roles, but sidestep cliché at every turn." Read the full review here.

Talking McQ, Brannigan, and The Shootist

We are talking the later John Wayne films over at Criminal Element today. Jake Hinkson reviews one of my favorite Westerns, The Shootist. And I tackle The Duke’s cops and robbers films from the 1970s, McQ and Brannigan. Stop over and join in the conversation. If you’re a diehard Duke fan you may disagree with my take on his police films but you’re still more than welcome.

For Ron Scheer

Laughter in the Dark

“Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.”

That succinct paragraph opens Laughter in the Dark before Vladimir Nabokov dutifully unfolds the spiraling downward fall of middle-aged art critic Albert Albinus and his gripping obsession with the 16-year-old Margot Peters. The novel was first published in Russian in 1932 under the far more captivating title Camera Obscura, and twenty-three years later Nabokov would tackle a similar theme of an older man with a young girl in the groundbreaking Lolita. But, whereas the famed nymphet of the 1950s gains a certain amount of pity for her situation, Margot comes across for what she is: a spoiled, conniving, and ultimately quite cruel femme fatale.

Read the rest of my article at Criminal Element.

Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles

This is my first new collection of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles short stories in almost three years. Wayne D. Dundee, Heath Lowrance, and Nik Morton have done such a fantastic job while I’ve been away that I knew I needed to dig deep to live up to their recent exploits.

The story of Cash and Gideon begins in the 1880s Wyoming Territory, then thunders through to 1930s New Orleans, and the two Deputy U.S. Marshals continue to find themselves on the outside of societal norms.

My buddy Chuck Tyrell helped me considerably with several stories in Further Adventures, and, in fact, I dedicated this collection to him.

Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles is available in print and for the Kindle.

New Issue of Mystery Scene

Terrie Farley Moran over at Women of Mystery highlights the new issue of Mystery Scene and I can already see one very good reason for grabbing a copy.

FREE eBook: The Big Ugly by Jake Hinkson

The Big Ugly is now available through BEAT to a PULP books and will be offered as a free download for two days. But I recommend the beautifully bound paperback with cover design by Michael Kronenberg—a nice addition to any noir book lover's shelf.

Ellie Bennett is an ex-corrections officer who has just served a year inside Eastgate Penitentiary for assaulting a prisoner. She’s only been out for a day when she accepts a strange job offer from the head of a Christian political advocacy group. He wants her to track down a missing ex-con named Alexis. Although no one knows where Alexis has gone, it seems like everyone in Arkansas is looking for her—from a rich televangelist running for Congress to the governor’s dirty tricks man. When Bennett finds the troubled young woman, she has to decide whether to hand her over to the highest bidder or help her escape from the most powerful men in the state.

Here's what others have said about The Big Ugly:

“Keep an eye on Jake Hinkson. He's taking the notion of the sacred and the profane to an entirely new level in noir.” —Lou Boxer co-founder of NoirCon

“The Big Ugly is a jolt to complacency, a spur to the psyche -- a novel that starts simply enough, but expands and suddenly consumes the reader. Jake Hinkson is a master at creating, not characters, but people -- and then putting them through Hell.” —Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball

“Jake Hinkson is a thunderhead on the horizon of crime fiction, and you can take The Big Ugly as confirmation that this storm isn't going to blow over any time soon. Batten down the hatches, take shelter and prepare for nasty weather. My favorite kind.” —Jedidiah Ayres, author of Peckerwood

Hardboiled Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is one of the biggest names of 20th century literature. He won the Pulitzer Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, and his star seems in no danger of burning out even with tastes shifting away from the controversial sport of his beloved bull fighting and his outdated machismo. Though he didn’t write for the pulps, his spare dialogue and trim storytelling strongly influenced many hardboiled crime writers of his time and extending to crime-scrawling word slingers on the Internet today. Below I’ve selected six stories and two films that exemplify why, along with impresarios like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, he helped define a genre directly with classics like “The Killers” and indirectly with more literature-infused offerings like “In a Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”

Read the rest of Edward A. Grainger's Hardboiled Hemingway here.

Some Real Ugly

Hey, I'm at Tor.com twice today! The latest:Twelve Doctor Who Villains and Why They Hate Him So Damn Much.

The Flash

I grew up reading The Flash comic and am looking forward to the new show. So, I'm at Tor.com with A Barry Allen Primer: What You Need to Know Ahead of The Flash’s Series Debut. Looking forward to talking to you over there.

Free eBooks!

Two Jack Laramie, The Drifter Detective, novellas are free for the Kindle over the next several days: The Girls of Bunker Pines by Garnett Elliott and Wide Spot in the Road by Wayne D. Dundee.

Them and Us

"My head," I tell 'em. I tell it like it is, man. I say, "My head. It's like the apple and the worm. It's about the integration." And they sit there staring. The whole bunch of 'em. Like a round table. A table full of knights. Boom boom boom. Cannon blasts. The same as the big metal doors. Boom boom boom. They still looking and waiting. So I say it again. "The apple and the worm, man. The apple and the wooorrm."

Chief Fatty sits looking like he never seen me before, hands folded on his big gut like he praying. Fine corduroy slacks and that nasty-ass bowtie. The grooves in the corduroy like mountains and valleys and the bowtie big and colorful looking like Bozo the clown, all crazy sitting there like that. He just sits looking at me, waiting. So I tell 'em some more. "Yo dude," I say. "We all bricks. You a brick. I'm a brick. Bricks bricks bricks. A towering concrete wall, big and round and surrounding it all."

Read more of Glenn Gray's "Them and Us" at BEAT to a PULP.

Free ebook: HAWTHORNE: TALES OF A WEIRDER WEST

There are monsters in the West. There is evil, lurking in the blood-soaked hills and bone-strewn plains. But there is also Hawthorne-scarred, enigmatic, deadly, driven by an all-consuming rage to seek out and destroy evil wherever he finds it. Without mercy.

But how long can one man fight the demons before becoming one himself?

HAWTHORNE: TALES OF A WEIRDER WEST features the stories "That Damned Coyote Hill," "The Long Black Train," "The Spider Tribe," "Bad Sanctuary," and "The Unholy" as well as an introduction by Western fiction legend James Reasoner.

Clare's Debutante Ball

Clare Toohey's stories appear in the Murder New York Style crime anthologies Fresh Slices and Family Matters, as well as Feeding Kate, which she co-edited. She also edited the digital anthology Deadly Debut and the award-winning e-collection The Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble. I'm thrilled to have Clare Toohey at BEAT to a PULP this week with "The Debutante Ball."